The Dems hadn’t even had control of the Senate for an hour before Chuck Schumer uttered his latest beyond-infuriating statement.If this newfound congressional power is going to mean anything, it has to begin with a long-overdue changing of the guard. And that means good ole grandpa needs to go.Not n...
  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
    2·
    5 天前

    Copying my thoughts on AOC from another comment because I think it’s relevant. Anyone is free to disagree of course.

    About AOC:

    I would love to see AOC become the first woman POTUS as much as anyone else, but I’d advise caution here and I think even she understands why. That would be like drawing the Queen of Spades and trying to shoot the moon. Awesome if it pays off, but also very risky. And the current pot is just too critical to take a risk like that in my opinion.

    This isn’t just about her being a Latina woman and a progressive, all of which could make it an uphill battle for her in the general election. She’s young too. She has a long career ahead of her and she can still do a lot of good in Congress. I’d love to see her run for Schumer’s seat when he’s up for reelection, then spend a couple terms in the Senate and run for president when she’s in her 50s or 60s.

    Even from where she is now in the House, there’s so much good she can do. Especially once Dems take back the majority and have a new generation of progressives on her side starting in 2027.

    Also, 2029-2032 will be about cleanup. We can certainly run a progressive agenda alongside the cleanup, but we should choose someone that can take a few hits when republicans inevitably try to blame them for the shitstorm they inherit from trump. That’s not an ideal environment for a young, progressive woman of color to start her first presidential term off with. Especially if the DNC isn’t fully on board yet.

    It’s far from ideal and it’s disappointing that these are the political realities, but we need to be pragmatic/strategic, and I think holding the AOC card for another time is probably the way to go.

    (TL;DR: I love her and I would love to see her as president some day, but I don’t think 2028 is her time yet and there’s still a lot of good she can do in Congress in the meantime).

    So yeah it pretty much boils down to the fact that I think it’s putting a lot of faith in centrist Dems and moderate swing voters to expect them to unite behind AOC, and I don’t think they’ve earned that trust yet.

    Plus, what good would it do to have a progressive Potus, and such a historic one at that, if Congress still isn’t on board with a progressive agenda?

    We’re making windfalls right now. A couple more electoral cycles and we very well might see progressive majorities in Congress.

    Why would we play our best card when the rest of our hand isn’t even ready to match it yet?